


At The End of The Day

by blackmustache



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-22
Updated: 2013-09-22
Packaged: 2017-12-27 06:39:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,754
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/975643
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blackmustache/pseuds/blackmustache
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Louis is in a terrible mood after the Doncaster match he isn't allowed to play in, so he calls the one person he knows will be able to talk him out of it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	At The End of The Day

**Author's Note:**

  * For [dessertmeltdown](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dessertmeltdown/gifts).



> Because she is the kind of terrible influence that makes fic happen.

Louis excuses himself as soon as they get into the house, claiming he needs a shower. It's not a total lie, he does take a shower, but he does it as quickly as he can and then pads back across the carpet into the bedroom. He fishes out a clean pair of pyjama bottoms to wear and pulls them on, flopping back onto the bed and taking a moment to just enjoy the relative quiet. 

He can hear his mum and Eleanor downstairs laughing with the girls, and he knows it will be a while before anybody comes to bother him even though it's long past normal bedtime for at least half the people down there.

He fiddles with his phone a bit and opens Twitter, writing a quick message about how good the game had been and then closes the app, avoiding checking any of his mentions or DMs. He's really not in the mood, which is weird, because he _should_ be in a great mood. 

He briefly considers going back downstairs until he hears a shriek of laughter from his mum and instead he climbs under the covers, scrolling through his contacts and hitting dial on Liam's name. 

It rings enough times that Louis is about to hang up before Liam answers, his voice a little rough and scratchy. "Hey."

"Hi," Louis smiles into the phone, glancing over at the clock. It's only eleven. He hadn't expected Liam to be asleep. "Did I wake you?"

"Nope," Liam lies. Louis can tell it's a lie and just laughs quietly. "'m just watching Newsnight."

"Newsnight?" Louis repeats incredulously. "You? I don't believe you've ever watched Newsnight in your life."

Liam sighs and Louis grins because he knows he's right. "Fine. I fell asleep watching something else and now Newsnight is on, okay?"

"You're such a shit rockstar, Payne," Louis teases, and he can feel his mood improving by the second.

They're both just quiet for a minute and it's nice and Louis really misses all of the boys when they're not together but he easily misses Liam the most. He can hear Liam shifting around and then the background noise cuts out as he switches the TV off or mutes it or something. "So how was the match?"

"Great," Louis replies, because he knows that's what he's meant to say.

"Yep, sounds like it," Liam snorts. "So what happened? They miss a penalty you wish you'd been on the pitch to take?"

"We won six nil actually." Louis feels a bit stupid for feeling so down. Maybe it's because he only actually saw two of those goals with his own eyes, despite being sat right there on the bench. Everything else had been a bit distracting.

"Right," Liam replies, and there's instantly a shift in the tone of his voice. Louis knows if Liam were here in the room right now, he'd be sitting up straighter and moving a little closer, making sure Louis knows his attention is all on him. Even though he can't see him, he knows that's what's happening anyway. 

Louis is biting his lip and Liam is just waiting for him to talk, instead of being pushy. Eventually he gets the words out. "I kind of wish I hadn't gone. That we'd just offered people refunds without confusing the issue by telling them I'd be there."

"Oh," Liam breathes. Louis can tell that's not what he was expecting to hear. "Because..." Liam trails off, waiting for Louis to fill in the blanks for him. 

"Because it just felt all wrong. Our fans are great, Liam, you know I love them, but they're _our fans_. That was a league match tonight and they were still all there for me." Once he starts, he can't stop the words from tumbling out of his mouth. "I was trying to watch the match and pretty much the whole of the East Stand were just watching me, screaming whenever I moved. Then the majority of the West Stand - who were behind the dugouts and couldn't see me – spent the whole time talking to mum and trying to get pictures taken with Lottie."

"I bet she loved that," Liam supplies helpfully, and Louis smiles a bit at that, because yeah, she did. She loved the attention and he knows that she's probably still babbling on about it downstairs and probably will do until somebody hits her with a cushion to shut her up. 

"She did," he admits with a sigh. "But that's not the point. It was just – it must have been off-putting for the players. They probably hate me for bringing the whole-" he waves his hand around in the air even though Liam can't see. " _One Direction circus_ thing into their world."

"If they won six nil it can't have been that off-putting."

"They won six nil! Does that not tell you something about how it must have affected the Scunthorpe players? I bet all of Scunthorpe hates me now."

"Louis," Liam replies calmly. "You're being ridiculous."

"Am I though? Am I?"

Liam sighs. "Yes. Both teams were there tonight playing in the exact same conditions. It's not your fault that Rovers played to the occasion and Scunthorpe fell apart, is it? And I know it was a big deal for you but it _was_ just a reserve game. Not even first team. I highly doubt most of Scunthorpe even cares, let alone hates you for it." He pauses. "And it's also not your fault that nobody famous ever came from Scunthorpe so they could do this themselves, is it?"

"I suppose not," Louis sighs dramatically, but he knows Liam is right because Liam has loosened up a lot in the last three years but he's really good at the serious stuff when you need him to be. "And can you stop saying Scunthorpe so much? I think it's giving me a migraine."

Liam laughs lightly down the phone and Louis wishes they were together so he could see Liam's face or Liam could poke him in the side or just _whatever_. Instead he picks at the fabric of his duvet and lies back, closing his eyes. 

"Surely you expected this kind of reaction though?" Liam suddenly questions. 

Louis sighs a bit again. "Yeah – I just – it would have been different if I was playing, you know? I would have _earned_ it and shit."

"And I suppose then everybody would have been looking at the pitch at least. Seeing as that's where you would have been."

"You're not helping."

"Yes I am," Liam replies, and Louis can just picture his stupid grin on his stupid face.

"Yeah," Louis concedes softly. "You are."

"Did you raise a lot of money though?" Liam yawns a little and Louis feels a bit guilty until he remembers that it's still not even eleven thirty and Liam is a healthy young man who absolutely should not be asleep this early. 

"Yeah, lots," Louis replies, and then he feels himself yawning too. Damn Liam. 

"And there's still the rearranged fixture to come. So you get to raise even more."

"True."

"You've got nothing to be embarrassed about, okay?" Liam murmurs softly into the phone and Louis shivers. With his eyes closed like this Liam could almost be beside him on the bed. "Except for maybe the vomiting incident."

"Shut up," Louis whines slightly, because that's still a sore spot but Liam wouldn't be Liam if he didn't bring it up. At least he hadn't texted Louis a photo of the newspaper article about it like Harry had.

Liam ignores him and carries on. "It was a great thing you did and you would have hated sitting at home if you'd decided not to go. The players won't hate you, they might have found it all a bit weird but it was a one off and they won so they can't complain. You're just being over sensitive about it because you were already nervous beforehand."

"You speak so much sense, Payno," Louis smiles and he hears Liam laugh quietly on the other end.

"I wish I'd recorded you saying that so I could play it back to you at a later date."

"Hey, no taking advantage of me when I'm feeling vulnerable." Louis hears feet thudding up the stairs as his mum sends the girls to bed, shouting after them about cleaning their teeth and other things nobody reminds you to do any more when you're in your twenties. 

"Oh is that what this is?" Liam mumbles softly, and Louis blushes a little bit. He definitely misses Liam the most. "I hope _you've_ remembered to brush _your_ teeth," he adds, and Louis snorts.

"You heard that, then?"

"Yeah." Liam clears his throat. "You feeling better now?"

"Much." He tenses all of his limbs at once as he stretches out in the bed. "Thank you."

"Any time."

"Now you can get back to Newsnight," Louis teases. "Love a bit of Jeremy Paxman, me."

"Oh shut up."

Louis grins. He should probably go and make an appearance downstairs – his mum will most likely have made him a cup of tea a good hour ago and now his sisters have gone to bed he can just about handle some grown up chat with his mum and El without having to feel like he's 'on'. "Love you, Liam."

Louis can practically hear Liam's grin down the phone. "Love you too. See you in a few days."

"Yeah. See you." Louis can't wait for that. Everything feels twice as hard when he doesn't have at least one of the other boys by his side, as much as he loves having spare time to spend with his family. He hangs up and lies there for a few minutes more, staring at the ceiling and thinking about how one short conversation with Liam can completely flip his mood on its head. 

He drops his phone on the bedside table and heads for downstairs. He passes Lottie on the stairs, just on her way to bed herself, looking completely shattered but giddy as hell as she hugs him goodnight. "You're the best brother ever," she mumbles into his ear and he laughs, squeezing her back and then pushing her up towards her bedroom.

He stops at the door to the lounge, taking a deep breath before he twists the handle. He remembers Lottie's face and everything Liam said before deciding once and for all to put tonight in the win column and forget about all of the down sides.


End file.
